Tag: 500SEC

When I brought home a nautical blue W126 last month, I was pretty chuffed to find a car in such an attractive and unusual color. But ever since then, I’ve been seeing nautical blue Benzes pop up left, right and center. I hadn’t really noticed them before, but it turns out that color code 929 isn’t as rare as I first thought. Still, it is gorgeous, and looks just as nice on the C126 coupe as it does on my W126 sedan. This particular car was spotted by fellow contributor Andrew H. It’s a Euro-spec 500SEC, powered by a version of the 5.0 liter M117 motor unsaddled by US emissions restrictions. That means it should be good for about 250 hp, give or take. Performance won’t be blistering – the SEC is more of a grand tourer than a sports car – but that motor is definitely more potent than the one offered in the US-spec 500 from the same period.

I probably don’t feature as many vehicles from the other side of the pond as I should, but today’s car is a great starting point. This 1990 500SEC for sale in London sports the amazing color of Nautical Blue and to make it even better, is for sale at a reasonable cost. But because this is a right hand drive car, there are a couple different things than what you are normally used to seeing on the C126.

Recently acquired this car however, due to business commitments it has to sell. The previous owner lovingly looked after the car and had it in his ownership for the past 12 years. The vehicle was dry stored in a garage, hence it presents in very good condition with 169,021 miles. It has its original book pack and service book including 3 sets of keys. The service book is fully stamped (Mercedes history up to 96k and independent specialist thereafter) and there are accompanying service invoices to verify the provenance of this outstanding car. In addition, the service file has old MOT certificates.

The Mercedes-Benz W126 was a series of S-Class automobiles manufactured by Mercedes-Benz between 1979 and 1992. Premiering in September 1979 as the successor to the W116 line, the W126 was the second generation to officially bear that prestigious designation, an abbreviation for the German Sonderklasse or “special class.” It introduced many Mercedes-Benz safety innovations, including the first seatbelt pretensioners.

Last week I wondered what kind of W126 S-class you could buy if you had an unlimited budget and wanted one in practically brand new condition. That search yielded a gorgeous, pearl black on black, ultra-low mileage ’89 560SEL, which ultimately sold for a very respectable $21k. I thought I’d play the same game this week, only this time I went on the hunt for a coupe. The SEC (or “C126”), designed by legendary Bruno Sacco, was based on a slightly shortened version of the sedan chassis. While the car retains many of the same graceful and elegant lines of its four door sibling, the coupe sports a sexy, pillarless profile that changes the character of the car. If the 80s stock broker was chauffeured to Wall Street in the SEL during the week, he drove the SEC to wild parties in the Hamptons on the weekends.

Yesterday I pulled up behind a lightly modded 1987 Mercedes-Benz 560SEC in my Audi Coupe. It was interesting, having them parked together and considering that they were produced only 1 year apart, yet the target audience for each was so vastly different. The Audi, steeped in modernity and full of angles, appeared short and lithe next to the Leviathan Mercedes. It was the last of the 1970s dinosaurs that somehow was still roaming the earth in the early 1990s, shouting and stomping around the land that time forgot. Yet there’s an inherent appeal in these cars too; beyond build quality and luxury, even beyond the fluid design of the pillarless coupe. There’s just something that is right about the C126, and pop some period AMG bits on and roll it in the period drug of choice, all that is missing is the Miami Vice soundtrack and some rolled up white sport coat sleeves:

We get a lot of submissions from readers – something we greatly appreciate! But the reality is that we don’t get the chance to write up all of these cars, and some deserving examples slip through the cracks. For some time I’ve wanted to do a roundup of all the examples we missed out on, so today I’m doing just that. Here’s a group of neat cars that we didn’t get a chance to look at in more depth. Thanks again to all of our devoted readers who have sent in some of these suggestions – we really do love getting your suggestions, so keep sending them and tell us if this “Honorable Mention Roundup is a good idea!

In the early 1980s, both BMW and Mercedes-Benz offered big coupes based upon sedan brethren. But to get the performance that matched their looks, before 1985-1986 you needed to look towards the “Grey Market” to get the hotter original specification motors. For the BMW 6-series, that meant the 635CSi jumped from 182 horsepower to 218, with 10 lb.ft more torque, too. But the Mercedes-Benz SEC was the big jump in power, with 27 horsepower more than the 380SEC but a massive 67 lb.ft of torque added. Coupled with lower weight, better headlights and slimmer bumpers, today these Euro editions are still quite popular and highly sought. Today I have two to face off; are either worth the high asking price for the ticket of admission?

By the time the 1990s dawned, the tap on gray market imports to the US had been closed off. However, a few cars still trickled in, especially via our neighbors to the north, Canada. This 1991 Mercedes-Benz 500SEC for sale in New Brunswick is a one family car, having been shipped from Germany to Canada. It looks to have led a pampered life, with under 40,000 miles on the clock.

After posting what I considered to be an over priced 911 yesterday, I thought I’d go the opposite direction and post a vehicle that I believe is not only fairly priced but may even be, dare I say it, a deal. To be perfectly honest I’ve been sitting on this listing for some time because I had hoped to have sold my S4 Avant and shot out to Palm Springs to take ownership of this thing, pending an inspection and test drive of course. It is a vastly different vehicle than the S4 but that’s kind of the point of me selling the car, I’m just ready for something different. A two door luxury coupe from the 80’s is about as different as I care to get with my next vehicle and man, what a candidate this car is.

The brown over tan interior oozes California country club cool, I like to think that the majority of the miles on this car are from making trips between Torrey Pines and PGA West. Comfortable and relaxing are perhaps the two most appropriate adjectives to associate with this car as the 5.0L V8 only cranked out 184hp. That’s not a whole lot for a 3,549lb car but this wasn’t a machine built for flat out speed or impressive lap times. This car is all about enjoying the ride, not getting to the destination in the shortest amount of time possible. If you’re looking for a luxury coupe that is as happy chasing apexes as it is eating up long stretches of highway then you’ll want to look for an E24. It’s hard for me to pick a favorite between the two legendary 80’s two doors because I haven’t an allegiance to either brand. I tend to like more of BMW’s cars overall but sometimes I want that little bit of extra luxury that I’ve always felt a Mercedes Benz offers.…

The words “authentic” and “original” become quite contested when it comes to 1980s AMG products. That’s mostly because, in truly un-Germanic fashion, most of the records of the early AMG cars were lost in the move from an independent company to incorporation in the Daimler-Benz Goliath. That’s really unfortunate, because it opens the opportunity for interpretation; without documentation, how is one supposed to truly show that their car is an original modified version? There are also questions about what level of modification makes a “authentic” AMG; because, technically, you could buy a steering wheel, wheels and aerobits from an authorized dealer in the 1980s and be able to claim it’s an original car. But the big money tends to be reserved for the cars that were fully modified with upgraded engines, suspension, interior and exterior upgrades. We’ve seen a few of these variously modified SECs cross these pages, and today we get to look at another. This one straddles the middle ground of mods; a steering wheel, reportedly correct “Penta” wheels, and aerodynamic bits adorn this European market 500SEC, but the car also has the correct AMG suspension as well. With lower miles, will this 1980s spectacular dipped white example set the market ablaze?

The eighties would be an end of an era for people wanting to privately import their own example of a vehicle not officially offered for US sale. Mounting legislation would make it impossible to import a vehicle under 25 years of age unless it met federal safety and emissions standards or if it was granted an exception under show and display status. Truth be told, the number of folks willing to go to the expense and trouble of private vehicle importation is rather small, but now the door was closed to bringing over cars such as this 1986 Mercedes-Benz 500SEC, with its higher output V8 and slimmer bumpers that connoisseurs of the marque love. The C126 coupe was a masterfully graceful design, sandwiched between the somewhat awkwardly proportioned C107 SLC coupe and the large and in charge C140 coupe.

Subscribe to Our Site

Get Our Daily Email With The Latest Finds! Your email will not be sold or spammed, we promise!

Categories

Categories

Browse the Archives

Browse the Archives

Disclaimers

We re-post public classified advertisements. As a practice we rehost images and ad copy to preserve the listing for future reference. If you would like additional attribution for your work, or wish to remove your listing from our site, we are happy to accommodate. Please email us: germancarsforsaleblog@gmail.com

Please note we do not represent these vehicles and our opinion on these cars has no guarantee or warranty. We are not responsible for these items in any way. Estimates on price and values expressed in our posts are solely the opinion of the writers. Thank you for your understanding.